Trump, a reluctant hawk, has battled his top aides on Russia and lost

Source: MSN/Washington Post

President Trump seemed distracted in March as his aides briefed him at his Mar-a-Lago resort on the administration’s plan to expel 60 Russian diplomats and suspected spies.

The United States, they explained, would be ousting roughly the same number of Russians as its European allies — part of a coordinated move to punish Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil.

“We’ll match their numbers,” Trump instructed, according to a senior administration official. “We’re not taking the lead. We’re matching.”

The next day, when the expulsions were announced publicly, Trump erupted, officials said. To his shock and dismay, France and Germany were each expelling only four Russian officials — far fewer than the 60 his administration had decided on.

Even though Trump has wanted to cozy up to Russia, he just ended up making things far more tense given how often he flip flops. Twice, after Trump attacked Syrians and indicated that the U.S. would be done with Syria, Assad has taken this as a green light to start gassing his people, then Trump decides to shoot missiles at Assad to save the people that Trump has repeatedly attacked as terrorists.

5. "I can't put on the charm."

Privately, he complained to aides that the media’s fixation on the Mueller probe was hobbling his effort to woo Putin. “I can’t put on the charm,” the president often said, according to one of his advisers. “I’m not able to be president because of this witch hunt.”